Camping Trip up North with Doron:
Jason, Doron, and I went up north past the top of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee for all those goys out there). We went to a place called Yehudiya. In Yehudiya there are a few great sites to see. Yehudiya itself is a river bed with many waterfalls and a 90 foot drop which a person use to have to jump but now there is a ladder. Then there are these pools on another trail called Zavitan that are formed by these rocks that are in the shape of a perfect hexagon. So, we spent three days, hiking around in the heat and playing in the pools and waterfalls. Then at night we would camp out and cook our own food which of course tasted great. We had a really fun time and the boys really bonded.
Once we got back to Jerusalem, it went back to just another normal week, work and Ulpan, having coffee with some of Jason's friends. But... that weekend was Jason's little brother Max's free weekend from his USY summer program in Israel, so we had him and his friend over for the weekend. Mostly we just let them play on the computer and hang out, we ate a lot of food, and thats about it. I think that they had a nice time.
The morning they left, I also had to leave for the final seminar for Career Israel. We went up north on the coast to a place called Nachsolim, which was gorgeous and amazing and beachy and I definitely want to go there again. However, being with Career Israel is fun and I love the people that I worked with and we had a good time, there was just a lot of stuff to do and deal with at this last seminar. On the way home we stopped in Zichron Yaakov which was great and we had a wine tour and tasting. So it was busy, but in the end I had a nice time. I had to do a lot of stuff for them and I know they really appreciated it, especially in my last week of work, which it was.
The rest of the week was all working, I spent long days at the office figuring out everything i needed to finish up and meeting with people about talking over my responsibilities, they really liked me there and they actually really need someone like me to stay so maybe just maybe I will have a job when I get back! But in reality it was the best summer internship, I really got to see the business and got to like it very much.
Thursday morning, our good friends Sarah, from Brandeis, got to Israel to begin her year stay at Pardes and was staying with us for the weekend. Thursday night we had dinner with Jacob another Brandeis friend and then went out to my roommate Rachel's birthday party where things were soo awkward because the Brandeis people didn't talk to any of our Israeli friends, but ti was still fun. Friday, I was supposed to help my co-worker check the participants out of their apartments but I woke up that morning with horrible food poisoning!! I was puking and blah and gross all day and the next day too. I hardly ate food for 2 whole days and only drank water through a straw, I felt awful and I couldn't even get out of bed for two days except to puke or go to the bathroom. But now I am all better. The sad thing was, I was sick for all of Shabbat, so Friday night we were going to have 8 people at dinner, we had planned a really great dinner and I was excited to have so many people over, but instead I slept all day in bed and Jason and Sarah took over the cooking and I actually couldn't even get out of bed to meet out guests and slept through dinner and missed all the fun. The next day Jason and Sarah went to lunch at another friend of ours and again I couldn't go because I was still too sick. But at least I got to spend some time with Sarah on Sunday, we went out in the morning and we to the old city. Sarah wanted to go to the Kotel while she was here and so we did, we meet a really nice girl working for Aish and she and Sarah made plans for a future shabbas, it was fuuny, then I said goodbye to Sarah and she left for Ulpan in Haifa and me and Jason are just now beginning the process of packing up and all that. Because, I sadly leave Israel on this coming Thursday night, in only 3 days.
I do feel sad about leaving, I have had an amazing time in Israel this year, however, I am exited to eat really food and go shopping in stores that have clothes I want to buy and to see my friends and family and I am way excited for senior year at Brandeis, but I know I will be coming back to Israel so soon that it doesn't bother me that much to be leaving.
So Shalom L'Israel and Shalom to you all,
Thanks for reading!!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Too Many Festivals= a whole ton of fun!
Now this past week, whoa, was it jam-packed with good ole' fun! The week began with a group movie outing with some of the fellows from the PresenTense Institute ( the creative Zionist institute Jason was involved with last summer). We met up with a few of the people from the house and went to go to Wall-E and it was the most amazing movie I have ever seen!! Now, this may have been because the entire first half hour of the movie centered around music from Hello Dolly being sung and danced to by a little garbage eating robot or becuase this movie so openly faces so many hot bed issues in the funniest way. Anyone reading this needs to get up from the computer and go the nearest movie theater this second to go see this movie, it was Fab-u-lous!
Then the week continued with Jason and I deciding that we needed as citizens of Jerusalem to attend at least one film of the Jerusalem film festival. The one that sounded most interesting to us was a film about transexuality and gender-change operation in Iran. This movie was actually really eye opening and very interesting. In Iran, homosexuality "doesn't exist" and is punishable by death, however, the Islamic law says that transexuality is a medical condtion that can be treated by gender change operation, so this entire movie ceneterd on a few boys who wanted to become women; but you have to remeber that these boys wanted to become women in a country where you become the scum of the earth and you have no rights. The movie was called Be Like Others, check out the website, very interesting.
Thhhhheeeen, the next day we went to the Israeli wine festival at the Israel museum. At this festival you pay 50 shek to get in and then they give you a wine glass and you get to run free and wild around the entire stature garden trying wines from over 50 Israeli winaries. We had some really really really great wine! They also had great chocolate and cheese. We ran into to a ton of people we knew, of course all the American would coem out for some really cheap wine tasting. We also had way too much wine to drink and were totally drunk by the time we got home. Which was funny becuase we had to be really really early the next morning becuase we were heading up north to go on a hiking trip with Doron.
More about the hiking trip next post! Keep reading
Then the week continued with Jason and I deciding that we needed as citizens of Jerusalem to attend at least one film of the Jerusalem film festival. The one that sounded most interesting to us was a film about transexuality and gender-change operation in Iran. This movie was actually really eye opening and very interesting. In Iran, homosexuality "doesn't exist" and is punishable by death, however, the Islamic law says that transexuality is a medical condtion that can be treated by gender change operation, so this entire movie ceneterd on a few boys who wanted to become women; but you have to remeber that these boys wanted to become women in a country where you become the scum of the earth and you have no rights. The movie was called Be Like Others, check out the website, very interesting.
Thhhhheeeen, the next day we went to the Israeli wine festival at the Israel museum. At this festival you pay 50 shek to get in and then they give you a wine glass and you get to run free and wild around the entire stature garden trying wines from over 50 Israeli winaries. We had some really really really great wine! They also had great chocolate and cheese. We ran into to a ton of people we knew, of course all the American would coem out for some really cheap wine tasting. We also had way too much wine to drink and were totally drunk by the time we got home. Which was funny becuase we had to be really really early the next morning becuase we were heading up north to go on a hiking trip with Doron.
More about the hiking trip next post! Keep reading
Just a quick catch-up
So after we got home from Petra, we went back to a normal week of fun. Mostly working. Twice that week I went with people from the office where I work to Kiryat Moriah, the main offices of the Jewish agency, to do some programs talking about Masa, it was pretty fun. That shabbat we had over our friend Jacob from Brandeis and my roomate Rotem and her cousin from America, Ashley. We had so much fun eating and talking and playing that they left at almost 1:30 am!! On saturday, Jason and I took a nice Shabbat stroll over to the Montefiore windmill and into Yemin Moshe (an gorgeous artist neighborhood directly outside the Old City). There is a very nice park there and Jason and I spent the afternoon having a small picnic and reading inthe park. It was a really relaxing Shabbat afternoon. That evening, we went out to dinner with Jason's Mom's college roomate Lisa who was visiting Israel with her two daughters. We took them to Beit ana Ticho and had an amazing delicious and over-filling meal (they just kept ordering food, it was crazy).
And that was the week after Petra, not so surprising, more to come soon...................
And that was the week after Petra, not so surprising, more to come soon...................
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Itzhak Jonesbergstein and the Last Crusade
So we Jews traveled to Petra. We left for Eilat on Thursday afternoon, it is a 4 hour drive down from Jerusalem to Eilat, but it has beautiful scenery. You start out driving out of Jeru' into the West Bank and towards the Dead Sea then you follow the Dead Sea south until you hit the Arava desert, which is separate from the Negev, and then eventually after many hours you make it Eilat. Eilat was so humid at 10 p when we got off the bus it felt like it was a million degrees outside. We walked a little bit and found our hostel, Beit HaArava. It wasn't the nicest place and the room was tiny but we didn't have to pay much and it was good 
enough for us. We walked over to the Tayellet (boardwalk) and got some ice cream before heading to bed early before our very early morning pick up at 6:45. Our tour company, Desert Eco Tours, picked us up in an awesome jeep: --------------------------------------------->>>
Then we drove around and picked up some other really nice young people (oddly, some Jewish, some not) and headed towards the Jordanian border. We got there about 20 minutes before it opened so we would be the first through and not have to wait around forever. We got through very quickly and the Israeli side , walked across the no-man's-land section to the Jordanian side, where we had to wait in the gift shop while our Jordanian guide checked our passports through for us. I changed over 5 Euro and got 5 Dinar. Then we got into our very nice air-conditioned van and then a Jordanian tourist police office joined us, we believe he was there no only for protection, we believe he was there for purposes of censorship. We drove trough Aqaba just to see this really tall flag they have there, I guess it's in the Guinness book or something, not so impressive, and then we headed north for 2 hours to Petra, of course stopping on the way at the little shop to pee and buy shit. We got really lucky because even though it was a hot day and the sun was shining it wasn't very humid so I didn't feel as hot. Once we arrived in Petra we began our descent down the canyon, seeing carved sandstone statutes and beautiful colored rock canyon walls. It was very shady and there was an old cobblestone path so we didn't have to walk through sand. Then just as we were about t reach a corner, our guide had us line up and face backwards looking at something, but it was a trick, then he had us all spin around and behind us you could see the Treasury, the most famous site in Petra:
It was so cool to see, and especially because our guide told us that back in the ancient day that they had to hang from the top and carve from the top down. And the entire thing is carved out of the canyon made of sandstone.
They filmed the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed here, but they only filmed the front of it, because there isn't anything inside except for some empty rooms. But the outside is beautiful and has so much detail. Right next to the Treasury was a huge set of sandstone stairs that were fading away because of the erosion of dust but Jason and I climbed them anyways and got up to this big cave, which had nothing in it and smelled like pee, but it was a fun little experiment. Then we moved on down the main stretch of Petra, it was filled with gorgeous facade all the way up the side of the canyon hundreds of feet in the air. There were also many little open air caves in the walls of the canyons. The facades were said to be the graves of the society that had lived there and the plain caves were there homes. The society that lived there believed that after death was the most important part so they made beautiful graves site. We walked all the way down the to the end where there were tons of restaurants, so we had an all you can eat meal, which I thought was very delicious (but the next day Jason and I were both not feeling too well). Then we were on our own to walk back up to the bus, so we had time to take pictures and climb things, which is what we did. Right at the end of the path, we ran into a very good friend of ours from Brandeis, Zack, who is doing a dig in Israel this summer. It was such an amazing coincidence to see him. After parting ways, we got back on the bus and slept our way back to the Israeli border. We got back to our hotel right before sunset, but we weren't about to starting Shabbat.
That night we decided to really go out to dinner, so we went to this restaurant on a boat recommended by my parents, it had amazing fish and I of course got the most un-kosher plate of seafood. Then we walked over to the beach right off of the Tayellet and went for a nighttime swim, it was so warm there that it almost felt better to swim at night. Later, we walked back to the hotel and collapsed because we were so exhausted.
The next morning we woke up late and headed to the beach, we first settled at the public beach that was pretty empty and only occupied by Israeli families who were camped out in tents. We spent some nice time there swimming and reading. Then we headed over to a second beach, which was actually right next to a bar/restaurant and has tons of chairs out on the sand, ti was pretty full but not crowded and we spent the rest of the afternoon there. They had a floating raft out in the ocean were people could climb up and lay so we did that, although the raft was pretty tall and my knees got pretty cut up trying to climb on. Later in the afternoon we deiced to go para-sailing, because Jason had never been and I really loved it the first time I did it. Jason was so scared that we wouldn't let go of the ropes the whole time he was in the air, but he said afterward that it was very fun. I, of course, loved it especially when I was dropped all the way underwater!! Then we had a light dinner and got back on the bus and slept our 4 hour drive back to Jerusalem. We got home and went right to bed.
All in all it was a wonderful sun filled vacation down south.
will write more soon,
Adra
enough for us. We walked over to the Tayellet (boardwalk) and got some ice cream before heading to bed early before our very early morning pick up at 6:45. Our tour company, Desert Eco Tours, picked us up in an awesome jeep: --------------------------------------------->>>Then we drove around and picked up some other really nice young people (oddly, some Jewish, some not) and headed towards the Jordanian border. We got there about 20 minutes before it opened so we would be the first through and not have to wait around forever. We got through very quickly and the Israeli side , walked across the no-man's-land section to the Jordanian side, where we had to wait in the gift shop while our Jordanian guide checked our passports through for us. I changed over 5 Euro and got 5 Dinar. Then we got into our very nice air-conditioned van and then a Jordanian tourist police office joined us, we believe he was there no only for protection, we believe he was there for purposes of censorship. We drove trough Aqaba just to see this really tall flag they have there, I guess it's in the Guinness book or something, not so impressive, and then we headed north for 2 hours to Petra, of course stopping on the way at the little shop to pee and buy shit. We got really lucky because even though it was a hot day and the sun was shining it wasn't very humid so I didn't feel as hot. Once we arrived in Petra we began our descent down the canyon, seeing carved sandstone statutes and beautiful colored rock canyon walls. It was very shady and there was an old cobblestone path so we didn't have to walk through sand. Then just as we were about t reach a corner, our guide had us line up and face backwards looking at something, but it was a trick, then he had us all spin around and behind us you could see the Treasury, the most famous site in Petra:
It was so cool to see, and especially because our guide told us that back in the ancient day that they had to hang from the top and carve from the top down. And the entire thing is carved out of the canyon made of sandstone.
They filmed the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed here, but they only filmed the front of it, because there isn't anything inside except for some empty rooms. But the outside is beautiful and has so much detail. Right next to the Treasury was a huge set of sandstone stairs that were fading away because of the erosion of dust but Jason and I climbed them anyways and got up to this big cave, which had nothing in it and smelled like pee, but it was a fun little experiment. Then we moved on down the main stretch of Petra, it was filled with gorgeous facade all the way up the side of the canyon hundreds of feet in the air. There were also many little open air caves in the walls of the canyons. The facades were said to be the graves of the society that had lived there and the plain caves were there homes. The society that lived there believed that after death was the most important part so they made beautiful graves site. We walked all the way down the to the end where there were tons of restaurants, so we had an all you can eat meal, which I thought was very delicious (but the next day Jason and I were both not feeling too well). Then we were on our own to walk back up to the bus, so we had time to take pictures and climb things, which is what we did. Right at the end of the path, we ran into a very good friend of ours from Brandeis, Zack, who is doing a dig in Israel this summer. It was such an amazing coincidence to see him. After parting ways, we got back on the bus and slept our way back to the Israeli border. We got back to our hotel right before sunset, but we weren't about to starting Shabbat.
That night we decided to really go out to dinner, so we went to this restaurant on a boat recommended by my parents, it had amazing fish and I of course got the most un-kosher plate of seafood. Then we walked over to the beach right off of the Tayellet and went for a nighttime swim, it was so warm there that it almost felt better to swim at night. Later, we walked back to the hotel and collapsed because we were so exhausted.
The next morning we woke up late and headed to the beach, we first settled at the public beach that was pretty empty and only occupied by Israeli families who were camped out in tents. We spent some nice time there swimming and reading. Then we headed over to a second beach, which was actually right next to a bar/restaurant and has tons of chairs out on the sand, ti was pretty full but not crowded and we spent the rest of the afternoon there. They had a floating raft out in the ocean were people could climb up and lay so we did that, although the raft was pretty tall and my knees got pretty cut up trying to climb on. Later in the afternoon we deiced to go para-sailing, because Jason had never been and I really loved it the first time I did it. Jason was so scared that we wouldn't let go of the ropes the whole time he was in the air, but he said afterward that it was very fun. I, of course, loved it especially when I was dropped all the way underwater!! Then we had a light dinner and got back on the bus and slept our 4 hour drive back to Jerusalem. We got home and went right to bed.
All in all it was a wonderful sun filled vacation down south.
will write more soon,
Adra
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Rayna, Rosh Hanikra, and Ulpan
Sorry for being bad about updating, living life has gotten in the way of my free time. So it's been a while, let's re-cap. I work weekdays, Sunday -Thursday, in the afternoons, and this isn't that exciting so this will just be an assumed section of my life unless otherwise told.
Tuesday June 24 - In a crazy turn of events, my best friend from high school, Rayna, was in Israel for a program and then had extended her stay. She happened to be staying only 10 minutes away from my apartment. So we got together and had dinner and chatted. We haven't really spent time together since last year so I was a great way to reconnect and become friends again.
Wednesday June 25 - Friday June 27 - Career Israel had a 3-day trip up north and I fortunately got to go along for FREE! the trip began by driving up to Haifa and meeting at a mosque of a very peaceful sect of Islam, it was very interesting to hear them speak about the entire situation from their point of view. Then we headed up to Acco and took a tour of Acco in the deathly heat, it was so hot. After that we headed up to our Hostel which was in a little town right near the Lebanese boarder. For dinner was traditional kibbutz style food, schnitzel and veggies. Then we watched a really good Israeli film, called Someone to Run With. The next morning, we headed even further north to the actually boarder crossing at Rosh Hanikra. We saw the beautiful grottos and then got to enter the army base there and go up on a huge tower where you could see into Lebanon and see where Hezbollah used to be. In the afternoon, we headed to Tzfat and took a short tour, where we ran into some crazy Na Nach Nachman's who were American and told us all about the happiness of na nach nachman-ish, it was hilarious. After Tzfat we shortly stopped over at Har Meron, which is where the grave of Shimion Bar Yochai is located and where people go on Lag B'Omer. Then it was back to the hostel to watch the big soccer game. The last day of the trip, we went back to Haifa and had a tour of the Bahai Gardens; it was beautiful but soooooo hot! Then we went to a local Druze village for Duze hospitality, which was so yummy and delicious. Lastly, we stopped at the shuk at Dalyet El Carmel, another Druze village. Then we headed home to J'lem.
Shabbat - Friday night Jason and I got invited to eat dinner the at PresenTense Institute (PTI) house, run by Jason's two business partners Aharon and Ariel, so we went. The house was huge but in the middle of nowhere in arnona, there were maybe 35 people for dinner, it was HUGE! I felt very overwhelmed, but things were fine. The food was great and afterwards Jason was part of a panel that spoke about their experience at PTI last summer. Then we went home. Saturday afternoon, we had Shabbat lunch at our place, Rachel and Rotem, and Rachel's boyfriend Yoni and his friends. Jason and I cooked spinach lasagna which was amazing. And the girls brought over a good salad and chocolate fondue as desert, there was so much chocolate that we still have half a container left. But before lunch was a balagaan, we woke up to find a bizillion ants had found on of our challahs and eaten it. Then in the process of cleaning the ants, Jason broke a glass mug on the floor. But in the end everything turned out just fine.
Sunday June 29 - normal day, in the evening we had coffee with Noam, a participant of career Israel who is going to Brandeis next year, because he and Jason are working together on finding housing.
Monday June 30 - In the AM, I woke up early to go to the temple Mount to see the mosques with Rachel and Rotem; we got there at 7:45 am. After spending a ton of time taking photos we went to breakfast at a cafe and then shopped at Mamilla mall for a little. Otherwise it was a normal day, Jason had a meeting in Tel Aviv in the evening so I got to stay home and have an evening alone, I watched the Tony's, they were pretty good, this year's crop of nominees for musicals wasn't the best but I love In the Heights and it won for best musical which made me happy.
Tuesday July 1 - no work today, it was my first day of Ulpan at Pardes so in the morning, I went downtown to go shopping and then in the afternoon Jason and I spent some time together over lunch and then I went to Ulpan. I ran into someone I knew from Brandeis and met some very nice people. My Hebrew class only has 4 people in it but it should be a good help for a month or so. That evening we baked cookies, we made chocolate chocolate chip, they are amazingly delicious!
Wednesday July 2 - normal day at work, then Jason and I went out on a date, which was really nice. His mom told him he had to take me out on a nice date and that he could pay for it with their credit card. So we went to this really good restaurant on Emek called Caffit, they have such good food! Then we went home and watched Sixteen Candles because Jason had never seen it.
Today I am at work right now and later we are leaving for Eilat/Petra and I will write more about that later.
XOXO
Adra
Tuesday June 24 - In a crazy turn of events, my best friend from high school, Rayna, was in Israel for a program and then had extended her stay. She happened to be staying only 10 minutes away from my apartment. So we got together and had dinner and chatted. We haven't really spent time together since last year so I was a great way to reconnect and become friends again.
Wednesday June 25 - Friday June 27 - Career Israel had a 3-day trip up north and I fortunately got to go along for FREE! the trip began by driving up to Haifa and meeting at a mosque of a very peaceful sect of Islam, it was very interesting to hear them speak about the entire situation from their point of view. Then we headed up to Acco and took a tour of Acco in the deathly heat, it was so hot. After that we headed up to our Hostel which was in a little town right near the Lebanese boarder. For dinner was traditional kibbutz style food, schnitzel and veggies. Then we watched a really good Israeli film, called Someone to Run With. The next morning, we headed even further north to the actually boarder crossing at Rosh Hanikra. We saw the beautiful grottos and then got to enter the army base there and go up on a huge tower where you could see into Lebanon and see where Hezbollah used to be. In the afternoon, we headed to Tzfat and took a short tour, where we ran into some crazy Na Nach Nachman's who were American and told us all about the happiness of na nach nachman-ish, it was hilarious. After Tzfat we shortly stopped over at Har Meron, which is where the grave of Shimion Bar Yochai is located and where people go on Lag B'Omer. Then it was back to the hostel to watch the big soccer game. The last day of the trip, we went back to Haifa and had a tour of the Bahai Gardens; it was beautiful but soooooo hot! Then we went to a local Druze village for Duze hospitality, which was so yummy and delicious. Lastly, we stopped at the shuk at Dalyet El Carmel, another Druze village. Then we headed home to J'lem.
Shabbat - Friday night Jason and I got invited to eat dinner the at PresenTense Institute (PTI) house, run by Jason's two business partners Aharon and Ariel, so we went. The house was huge but in the middle of nowhere in arnona, there were maybe 35 people for dinner, it was HUGE! I felt very overwhelmed, but things were fine. The food was great and afterwards Jason was part of a panel that spoke about their experience at PTI last summer. Then we went home. Saturday afternoon, we had Shabbat lunch at our place, Rachel and Rotem, and Rachel's boyfriend Yoni and his friends. Jason and I cooked spinach lasagna which was amazing. And the girls brought over a good salad and chocolate fondue as desert, there was so much chocolate that we still have half a container left. But before lunch was a balagaan, we woke up to find a bizillion ants had found on of our challahs and eaten it. Then in the process of cleaning the ants, Jason broke a glass mug on the floor. But in the end everything turned out just fine.
Sunday June 29 - normal day, in the evening we had coffee with Noam, a participant of career Israel who is going to Brandeis next year, because he and Jason are working together on finding housing.
Monday June 30 - In the AM, I woke up early to go to the temple Mount to see the mosques with Rachel and Rotem; we got there at 7:45 am. After spending a ton of time taking photos we went to breakfast at a cafe and then shopped at Mamilla mall for a little. Otherwise it was a normal day, Jason had a meeting in Tel Aviv in the evening so I got to stay home and have an evening alone, I watched the Tony's, they were pretty good, this year's crop of nominees for musicals wasn't the best but I love In the Heights and it won for best musical which made me happy.
Tuesday July 1 - no work today, it was my first day of Ulpan at Pardes so in the morning, I went downtown to go shopping and then in the afternoon Jason and I spent some time together over lunch and then I went to Ulpan. I ran into someone I knew from Brandeis and met some very nice people. My Hebrew class only has 4 people in it but it should be a good help for a month or so. That evening we baked cookies, we made chocolate chocolate chip, they are amazingly delicious!
Wednesday July 2 - normal day at work, then Jason and I went out on a date, which was really nice. His mom told him he had to take me out on a nice date and that he could pay for it with their credit card. So we went to this really good restaurant on Emek called Caffit, they have such good food! Then we went home and watched Sixteen Candles because Jason had never seen it.
Today I am at work right now and later we are leaving for Eilat/Petra and I will write more about that later.
XOXO
Adra
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